Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
Browse the NASA APOD archive without needing the exact date first. Filter by media type and keep moving deeper into older images and videos.
Unwinding M51
The arms of a grand design spiral galaxy 60,000 light-years across are unwound in this digital transformation of the magnificent 2005 Hubble Space Telescope portrait of M51 . In…
Seeing Titan
Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn's largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly…
TYC 8998-760-1: Multiple Planets around a Sun Like Star
Do other stars have planets like our Sun? Previous evidence shows that they do, coming mostly from slight shifts in the star's light created by the orbiting planets. Recently ,…
Perseids Around the Milky Way
Why would meteor trails appear curved? The arcing effect arises only because the image artificially compresses (nearly) the whole sky into a rectangle . The meteors are from the…
NGC 6814: Grand Design Spiral Galaxy from Hubble
In the center of this serene stellar swirl is likely a harrowing black-hole beast. The surrounding swirl sweeps around billions of stars which are highlighted by the brightest and…
Mars at the Moon's Edge
Does the Moon ever block out Mars? Yes, the Moon occasionally moves in front of all of the Solar System 's planets. Just this past Sunday, as visible from some locations in South…
NGC 5189: An Unusually Complex Planetary Nebula
Why is this nebula so complex? When a star like our Sun is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall shape. Sometimes this shape is a sphere ,…
Jupiter and Saturn Rising Over Alien Throne Rock
What planets are those behind that unusual rock spire? Saturn (lower left) and Jupiter. This month, after sunset, the bright planetary duo are quite prominent toward the…
The Shifting Tails of Comet NEOWISE
Keep your eye on the ion tail of Comet NEOWISE. A tale of this tail is the trail of the Earth . As with all comets, the blue ion tail always points away from the Sun . But as…
Churning Clouds on Jupiter
Where is Jupiter's ammonia? Gaseous ammonia was expected to be seen in Jupiter 's upper atmosphere by the orbiting Juno spacecraft -- but in many clouds is almost absent. Recent…
Perseids from Perseus
Where are all these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus. That is why the meteor shower that peaks tomorrow…
The Origin of Elements
The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang . There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body…
Crescent Saturn
From Earth, Saturn never shows a crescent phase. But when viewed from a spacecraft the majestic giant planet can show just a sunlit slice. This image of crescent Saturn in natural…
The Pipe Nebula
East of Antares, dark markings sprawl through crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard , the…
Messier 20 and 21
The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the…
NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans
Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish , (Piscis) Volans . Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms…
Comet NEOWISE over Vikos Gorge
Did the Earth part to show us this comet? Of course not, even if this image makes it seem that way. Pictured far in the background is Comet NEOWISE as it appeared about two weeks…
Two Worlds, One Sun
How different does sunset appear from Mars than from Earth? For comparison, two images of our common star were taken at sunset , one from Earth and one from Mars. These images…
The Elephant's Trunk Nebula in Cepheus
Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story , the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396 , in the high and far off…
Mars 2020 from 5,000 Feet
On Thursday this snapshot from a small plane 5,000 feet above Florida's Space Coast caught a rocket's trail rising into the blue morning sky. It was July's third launch of a…
The Red Planet Mars
Mars looks pretty sharp in this backyard telescope image captured on July 23 from Hoegaarden, Belgium, planet Earth. The Red Planet's bright south polar cap is bathed in sunlight…
The Giants of Summer
As Comet NEOWISE sweeps through northern summer skies, Jupiter and Saturn are shining brightly, near opposition . With Jupiter opposite the Sun on July 14 and Saturn on July 21,…
NGC 6188: The Dragons of Ara
Dark shapes with bright edges winging their way through dusty NGC 6188 are tens of light-years long. The emission nebula is found near the edge of an otherwise dark and large…
Comet and Lightning Beyond Bighorn Mountains
Normally, Steamboat Point looks cool -- but not this cool. Every day, the iconic peak of the Bighorn Mountains is an interesting sight, in particular from US Highway 14 in Wyoming…
Viewing discoveries from 21 August 2020 through 27 July 2020.